Seven Days in Vintage - A Week in the Life

Almost a month into Slow Fashion Season and I've bought something new but I'm not cheating, it's just new to me, not new new. I'd lusted over this vintage 1970s Young Innocent by Arpeja printed cotton maxi after spotting it online ages ago but it was way out of my price range so I was beside myself with joy when I spotted the identical dress in an UK-based vintage selling site last week £100 cheaper. No messing about, I made that beauty mine in the click of the button.

Popular throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Arpeja was a Californian company with divisions which included Young Edwardian (established in 1964), Young Victorian (established in 1967) and Organically Grown (established in 1971). The Young Innocent line was established in 1963 and is the only Arpeja label I haven't owned previously, I couldn't love it more.

A bit of label porn and a close-up of yesterday's earrings, featuring Frida Kahlo's "The Hidden Column" (1944) bought from my festival trading neighbours Shilpa Silver a couple of years ago. I've got a growing collection of their fairly traded, Mexican-made, Frida inspired jewellery. It makes me very sad that Primark are currently using her image on cheap tee shirts.

So what have I been up to on my week off?  To be honest it's taken us the best part of seven days to recover from Glastonbury and Cornbury and my hip's been an utter bastard (thankfully the drugs are finally starting to take effect). On Tuesday we unpacked the van, put the stock away and attempted to tame a garden gone feral after nearly three weeks of neglect and on Wednesday we went charity shopping for the first time in ages, picking up a few vintage gems.

Clockwise from top left: St Michael '70s cotton off-the-shoulder top; 1970s pinstripe wool jacket; 1980s West German military style jacket; Japanese Haiku shirt; 1980s Moss Bros dinner jacket with gold lapels; Japanese raincoat; West German bold stripe blazer; 1970s nylon beach dress; 1970s Alexon Young Set tweed coat; 1980s Windsmoor 50p coin print midi skirt; 1980s butter soft leather jacket by Big Ben; 1980s Hugo of London metallic raincoat; 1970s Peekaboo cotton maxi dress; 1970s john Charles sequin edge-to-edge jacket; 1970s pinstripe waistcoat; Handmade batik crop top

WEARING: Vintage 1970s Indian silk kaftan (eBay) with a Gujarati amulet pendant

On Thursday I donned the Indian silk kaftan I'd won on eBay back in the Spring and we went over to visit friends G&T where we swapped some vintage clothes and went for a rather posh lunch in a gorgeous restored Regency house (HERE). On the way back we discovered an elderly lady lying unconscious in the road, after managing to rouse her we realised to our relief that she was drunk rather than injured. We managed to get her address from her, bundled her in the car and drove her back to her sheltered accommodation, handing her over to a rather bemused security guard. Never a dull moment, eh?

WEARING: Indian cotton jumpsuit, tooled leather belt, junk jewellery necklace (all secondhand/vintage) with Lotta from Stockholm clogs

  On Friday I sorted some stock in readiness for next weekend's event and made the fatal error of trying this 1970s jumpsuit on for size. Made in India by Terrand and a size small, it's identical to one I owned in 1978. As I bought it in Walsall it might even have been my old one. I get told I can't wear 1970s clothes, I remember them the first time around all the time and it drives me daft. Yes, I wore this (or its twin) in the 1970s but back then I had blonde crimped hair, a dental brace and a whole heap of adolescent insecurities. The second time round and things couldn't be more different, the teeth are fixed, the hair's different and at 52 and-a-half I couldn't give a f*ck about what people think.

My trader friend Nat of Eyewood Vintage kindly sent me this sweet '60s velvet bolero as it was too faded for her to sell. On Saturday - after a morning of gardening - I dyed the sun bleached shoulders with one of those root retouch-up pens, removed the beige pom poms and blinged it up with some Indian sequin motifs I bought from a car boot sale years ago. Bollywood-tastic!

Sunday's outfit: Vintage Mayur Indian cotton gauze midi dress (local selling site) worn with a 1970s Indian silk scarf, Ted Lapidus sunglasses (both charity shopped) and Lotta from Stockholm clogs

On Sunday we popped into town for some bird food & organic coconut oil and came back with a 1970s man's cardi, a vintage waistcoat and a Konjac sponge - as you do. I must say how impressed I am with the sponge, my skin feels wonderful (find them HERE). After making some wired headbands from a XXXL pair of pyjamas, we settled down to an epic catch-up of Beecham House. I'm not generally a fan of ITV productions or period dramas (Peaky Blinders being the exception) but it's set in India, directed by Gurinder Chadha (Bhaji on the Beach, Bride and Prejudice) and stars the lovely Grégory Fitoussi of epic French cop series Spiral. Whilst it's not going to win any Oscars, its perfectly watchable and we loved spotting places we'd visited in Delhi and Jaipur including Amber Fort which I wrote about HERE.

WEARING: Vintage Dollyrockers pure silk tropical print maxi, designed by Samuel Sherman for his 1967 collection, bought from eBay in 2010 and Lotta from Stockholm clogs (bought in 2018)

On Monday, wearing the dress pictured above, we met up with the Dead Relatives Society for lunch in 'Spoons and ended up getting home at 10.30. The cats were disgusted with us, we told them we'd be back for tea. Despite the outrageous behaviour of the day before we were up and out early to go charity shopping where we picked up a few more interesting bits.

Clockwise from top left: 1980s Hawaiian shirt; Hell Bunny Vixen circle skirt; 1980s oversized shirt featuring embroidered ducks; 1980s green velvet tailor-made in Birmingham jacket; Circus print shirt; 1970s belted crimplene tunic; 1980s pure new wool & velvet trimmed Windsmoor coat dress; 1980s brocade waistcoat; 1980s Italian-made leisure shirt

Today I'm wearing cut down shorts, a vintage Indian block printed top and doing a trial set-up in readiness for The Great Gatsby weekender. We're so excited about a trip to the English seaside, it's been decades since we last went.

Do come along and visit us if you can.

See you soon!